Improve your skiing with Shims or foundation.

[Bud Man]

Shims or foundation.

 

Brent started a good thread on goals for this season. I did not want to sidetrack his thread, so this is something to think about when working on improving our slalom.

 

Imagine constructing a building. It is easy to get ahead of ourselves by skipping a good solid foundation to hurry up the project. Then we start to see it leaning so we shim it to attempt to get it straight and move a little further along. If we are not careful, we do nothing but shove shims everywhere but never really get anywhere because we never built a good solid foundation.

 

List everything you can think of that you need to do better. (Excel will work well for this.) Now put an S or an F beside each one. Then number them in order of importance. When this is done rewrite into two lists in descending order. You can use this to review each time BEFORE you ski to pick what you are going to work on.

 

It might seem to take us longer to climb down and really get that foundation right, but if we do, it should be able to support us all the way to the shortest lines

 

[ForrestGump]

Bud, let me ask you something. And this is by no means deragatory, but a casual observation. Plus, based on something you wrote in that other thread. 

 

My family business is home building and apartment complex building.  Now when my dad builds an apartment, he doesn't just make sure that the concreate foundation is plumb and level. Instead, he employes an engineer and architect to craft the design, then builds the foundation that they indicate.  In Brent's post, and in others, you seem to want to craft your own design foundation. What I mean is, you seem to have an idea in your head about what you want to do and although you do ask you never seem to do what others recommend. If my dad built his foundations on only his ideas, then half of his apartment complexes would fall over, even if they were plumb and square.  I say this because you mention going to Chet's but don't seem to think you'll get anything meaningful out of it because "why do I need someone to tell me what I think I already know". If you actually knew what to do, you'd do it. Obviously, since you are having issues, you don't.  Again, not trying to be inflammatory or derogatory, just something I've observed.  Does your wife call you hard headed by any chance? ;)

[Bud Man]

ShaneH and OB,

 

 

Both of your posts are good and accurate. But, please dont misunderstand my great esteem for Chets abilities to coach and ski. I have heard from so many people that he is THE BEST coach in the world, and I have no reason to doubt it. I have only met him once and enjoyed our conversation. It was at the record tournament where Chris Parrish and I both set records. His was a great 1 ½ at 9.75m and mine a measly 2 at 10.75m. (H2Osmosis Swerve Session, Johns Island, SC, 8/27/2005 to 8/28/2005.) There were a bunch of MM skiers like Chris LaPoint, Wim D. Steve C. Chet, etc¦ I have never considered myself as a good skier, but I was surprised at how many of the MM skiers did not reach my score. I came home and told my wife about the tournament and how I was surprised that all of those people did not blow past my score. She said that I was a good skier, and I said not really, and there came the €œyou are so hard headed.€ So the answer is yes Shane.

 

And Shane; your analogy is great when you said: €œhe employees an engineer and architect to craft the design, then builds the foundation that they indicate.€ That fits perfectly like a skier going to get coached by Chet. Who better to engineer a foundation for slalom. The really weird thing about your analogy being so right is that I have gone about BOTH the wrong way and just got lucky. I have never been to ski school but have run 10.75m (-39.5) a few times and I have never had any engineering or construction education but I have drawn a few sets of blueprints and built a few houses myself. (including rough and finish construction, elec, plumb, HVAC) I did hire out the pouring of the concrete slabs though. One was three stories and of about 5000 sq. ft. and the most current one is two stories with an indoor swimming pool and elevator. It is 100% handicap accessible.

 

 

And yes, yes, yes, OB change is so hard for me. When I once in a while make a slow turn with a tight line like I saw you do in your 11.25m video it all falls into place and feels so good. If I could fix that ONE thing, then I would be more opened to working on the other hundred things I am doing wrong. I do want to change! It is hard enough to change that one thing so I know it would be even harder if I were trying to change several things at once.

 

 

I did try what Chad suggested and other things nice people suggested and I do appreciated their help. I am still open-minded for suggestions.

 

 

I posted a video of me struggling with slack rope coming out of 2/4 at 11.25m. Wade replied and suggested to (if I remember right) take.005€ out of the fin. I made the change and appreciated his suggestion, but I don™t want to take the time to go to a ski school to hear something like that.

 

 

An example of the point of this thread is this: Let™s say a skier (on a current model ski with stock settings) was not in good body position at 14.25m and the ski was not coming around his off side very well. A shim might be to add length to his fin and he says wow, the ski sure does come around my off side better now. But he is still in that same wrong body position.

 

A foundation might be to go back to 16m or slow the boat down and learn how to ski in a stacked position.

 

 

This thread was to bring awareness to the difference to help people build stronger foundations in their slalom.

 

 

I might add some more latter, but my wife and I have to run somewhere right not.

 

 

[Bud Man]

Brent,

Very well said, and I agree with you 100%.

 

I guess I might lack the confidence in myself to implement the good advice that I would receive. Or maybe I’m afraid that I will drive all the way there and back and only be told to do something that I have already been working on and just haven’t been successful in accomplishing it.

 

When I used to work, I always had the excuse that I was too busy. I retired a little over 10 years ago and still continue to come up with new excuses. Oh well, at least I’m honest.

 

I love to ski, I love to improve and I love to help others learn and improve. I do not like leaving home and that is why I rarely go anywhere. By the way, before I retired, I worked at home.

 

To give a better idea how much I dislike leaving home; since 1993, and currently, I lease a private ski lake 30 minutes from my new home and the owner was going to allow me to build a garage to keep my boat in. Rather than be faced with that drive, I built a ski lake where I live.

 

[Jim Neely]

Brent, Good idea.

 

Bud, bring one of those guys to your lake and I'll join in.

[Bud Man]

Brent, what do you mean “almost”! Please tell me when I don’t think about slalom, then you can add the “almost.” I tease people and say that I am going to build a casket shaped like a ski boat to have it ready for when I’m called Home, but it might not be a joke.

 

And also Brent, are you just going to take away all my excuses? I could use you as a ski buddy to push me harder.

 

Jim, if you line up the skiers, I will open up Bud Lake to the clinic.

 

Having RJM here was a good experience. I had instant feedback at each pass. The main thing he had me doing though was “less.” At each end of the lake he would say; relax and put less effort in the pass. He told me that he wanted me to learn how little effort it really took to ski. He said that once I figured that out, I could then add whatever I felt I need to catch-up if I had to. He also tinkered with my fin after almost every set. He was an intelligent and kind hearted person. We just ran 13m line the whole time he was here. If you are reading this Robert; thank you for your help and people are always asking about you and wishing you well.

 

[MattP]

Jodi Fisher also has a traveling clinic this summer. He's a great coach http://www.jodisskiskool.com Just throwing another coach in the mix.

[Bud Man]

I found the picture of the tournament I mentioned above./vanilla2/uploads/FileUpload/8/608.JPG

[RichardDoane]

Bud Man - where is Bud Lake ?

[Bud Man]

About the center of SC.

[Horton]

Bud,

I take a similar approach but refer to it as “Return On Investment”. The challenge is to find that one thing that is going to make the biggest difference in your skiing. The one focus that will return the greatest reward for my efforts. It's not two things and sure as heck not five things.

 

Often the hardest part is finding the one thing. Three coaches may say three different things to correct the same issue. The trick is to identify the single thing that will return the most reward.

As an example: the subject of moving your center of mass forward can be approached a dozen ways. The challenge for you, not the challenge for the coach that is to find the key in your head to achieve the mechanical change you desire.

 

The next thing that many many skiers do wrong is to focus on that one thing for only a weekend or a few weeks. I believe that to learn something completely it has to be your primary focus for at least a number of weeks.

 

[ForrestGump]

Sports physiologists will tell you that to begin to ingrain a specific body motion into muscle memory(regardless of if it's tennis, football, skiing, etc) you must repeat the motion or mechanic correctly 1000 times. Think about that. If you are trying to fix one mechanic, say in your offside turn, that is only 3 repetitions per pass(2 if you're left foot forward). 3 times let's say 8 passes a set is 24. Which would mean you'd have to focus on that mechanic for 40 sets. If I get 5 sets a week, that's 8 weeks focusing on one mechanic. It's no wonder we beat ourselves up trying to learn this stuff! lol

[MattP]

Shane you are absolutely correct about the 1,000 repetitions for your body to learn the muscle memory. That is why it gets so hard to improve year after year in this sport. In rowing 1,000 strokes is roughly 10,000 meters and can be done in one practice and defiantly in two. This is one reason why I saw large improvements in my rowing and now I see large improvements in my rowers from week to week when they apply them selves to get better.

[ForrestGump]

Brent, that's exactly what Mueller's got me doing. Started at 21mph on 90 inch jumpers running the slalom course, working my way up to 34mph. It will certainly teach you load and speed management, as well as the benefit of keeping your core upright with your shoulders behind your hips. The second you let a shoulder go in front of your hips, those big jumpers will stop and you go out the front. Apparently, it's pretty damn comical to watch due to the response from the boat. hahahahaha

[Old MS Accout]

Mueller and Lucky need to get together. That would be fun.

[Chef23]

Bud,

 

Regarding coaching I think everyone can benefit from an expert set of eyes watching you ski live. I use golf as an example. The best golfers in the world all have coaches that help them on a regular basis. My guess is that the best slalom skiers in the world have coaches that work with them regularly also. If it is good for them it should be good for us.

[Old MS Accout]

Lucky Rocks. He made my wife cry but I thoght he was a great coach. The bizare thing is that Mueller was my first coach and Lucky was the second.

[DW]

All of the elite athletes in solo type sports have one or more coaches, team sports employ numerous coaches, football being a prime example with numerous coaches specializing in different positions or aspects of the sport.